Steven Stolman
"Never be late, because they won’t hold the plane for you. Always ask the crew where you should sit, since the crew knows where the owner likes to be. Always sit in back until you are invited to move forward. Become an expert at determining how much personal space your host requires. If they want to read quietly, let them. But, believe me, I will perform Act II of a Broadway show if it’s required."
... Read NowGordon “Butch” Stewart
"An aircraft is probably the single biggest tool that I’ve ever used to help a business. I think I would be less than halfway to where we are [without access to private aviation]."
... Read NowAnonymous Buyer
"There’s something about a widebody plane with 1,000 square feet of floor space that’s addictive, and I just didn’t feel like flying in a little tube of 300 square feet anymore."
... Read NowXOJet CEO Paul Touw
"What are people willing to pay for one seat with three other guys on the airplane where our feet are commingled and you can’t bring any baggage and there’s no bathroom? When was the last time you shared a limo? i think the seat model’s a little crazy."
... Read NowDouglas Tewell
“I make up every penny I pay extra for charter [flights] with better play on the golf course.”
... Read NowRobert M. Bass
“With this plane, you can have breakfast in New York, fly to London, stay for four hours and fly back to New York for dinner.”
... Read NowJames Fallows
“Now [tycoon Xhang Yue, the first person in China to buy a private jet] wanted a new airplane…that would go at least 300 miles an hour and get at least 15 miles to a gallon of jet fuel…I delicately asked whether he needed such a plane now, or could wait two or three years for one of the many small jets currently being developed. Without waiting for translation he said, in Chinese, ‘Now! Now!’…I said I would call a friend at NASA who was the world’s expert on exciting new aircraft to see if he knew of one. Fine, said Zhang. Let’s call him now! Well, it was 3:30 a.m. on the U.S. East Coast. Maybe we could wait an hour or two?”
... Read NowWarren Buffett
“Once you’ve flown NetJets, returning to commercial flights is like going back to holding hands.”
... Read NowAl Kroontje
“Perhaps I underestimated how nice it would be to be cruising so high…Many ride complaints were coming in from airliners in the mid to high thirties [altitude]. I just couldn’t help but smile when…a controller said to an airline guy, ‘We don’t have anything smooth except for a Citation at 43,000’–to which the airline guy replied, ‘Well, that’s not gonna help us much.’”
... Read NowJohn Hamlin
“[Some rock acts], like the Rolling Stones, fly with an entourage of 30 or more on sizable jetliners retrofitted with the finest creature comforts money can buy. By the time the fans find their cars in the parking lot, Keith Richards is sipping a vodka cranberry in a private cabin aboard a chartered Boeing 727.”
... Read Now
